Rune Factory: The Cursed Realm
by Time Deluxe
Summary: Residents of Trampoli become increasingly worried after series of strange events occur in their hometown. Raguna faces his most difficult adventure yet along with some new alliances and enemies. Will Raguna succeed this time? Rated T for violence.


Rune Factory: The Cursed Realm

Author's Note: This story is based on Rune Factory Frontier, and will include all of the characters from the game, and may also feature some characters from Rune Factory 1. The story will also contain my own original characters. I have not beaten any of the games, however this story will take place after Raguna has finished the ruins and whale Island. Raguna is also not married.

* * *

Chapter 1 – "End Of Raguna?"

Raguna and his pet Chitter, which he personally named Nutmeg, were in the Green Ruins. After numerous amounts of strange events which included the decline in Runeys', severe weather conditions and darker days Raguna accepted the villagers request to explore areas of Trampoli. After searching the lava and snow ruins and all parts of Whale Island the Green Ruins was Raguna's last stop.

Raguna scanned each and every floor in the Green Ruins while Nutmeg used his ears to pick up on anything which might sound unusual. It was reaching the point where Raguna was beginning to believe that all the strange events in Trampoli were just coincidence, however one thing did play on his mind. _Why are the days becoming darker and darker when we are reaching the end of spring and ready to start the summer? Surely we should be getting a lot more lighter nights, but were in Spring 25 and yet the sun sets at five in the afternoon and the night gets pitch black at six. _Raguna thought. Raguna was in deep thought on what has caused all the mysterious events but his thoughts vanished when Nutmeg suddenly began squeaking throwing his nut at a large door which towered over them.

"This is the room where I defeated Cluckogrif!" Raguna gasped. Raguna relived the fight between him and Cluckogrif in his head. He knew that entering this door may lead to all the answers to the questions being asked over the past week and recovered his stamina by eating some cherries. Suddenly deathly growl screeched through the gaps of the door. Raguna chocked a spat out the sweet taste of the cherries, and Nutmeg was soon behind the back of Raguna's leg clinging onto his boots in fear.

"So finally I think I reached the answer" Raguna whispered. He swiped out his sword and hesitantly reached his arms out to push the door open. _All this could go wrong... but then again, when have I ever been brutally beaten by anything in the past? _ Raguna felt positive and already took the consequences into account. He clenched his knuckles and then slammed the door open...

"Blimey!" Raguna yelled. Raguna was quickly greeted to the monsters tail which swayed across the half the room digging into the edges of the room. Raguna rolled under the beats underbelly with Nutmeg scurrying behind him. He pinned himself against the wall and took a deep breath. He was already worn out by the shock of the cold reception he received as he entered the room, but things were about to get a lot worse as the huge creature turned around face to face with Raguna.

The creature resembled a large bull with tough oak wood skin covered with lingering green moss. Branches spiked out of the creatures back and his face resembled the look of a pumpkin which had sharp eyes and a jagged mouth carved into it causing it to have a fixed angry and spooky face. Its large devil like horns was a couple of inches away from the ceiling and a tree sapling sprouted out from the top of its head. It stared directly at Raguna and tilted its head like a confused dog and suddenly gave out a deafening roar. Raguna embraces himself as the moist monsters breath slammed Raguna's head onto the wall.

"Ah!" Raguna yelled in pain, his eyes blurred but he could work out that its tail was ready to strike the other half of the room. He rolled under with Nutmeg in a race to get to the other side of the room; however, Nutmeg was quickly crushed by the monster mammoth hooves. Blue magic swept past the monster foot which was an indication Nutmeg had been sent back to the barn. "Crap I'm on my own!" Raguna shouted. Raguna was quick to make sure he didn't end up like Nutmeg and repeatedly slashed the monsters foot with his wind sword, but no luck. The sword made no impact apart the occasional splinter of wood flickering of the beast. The bull was slow; however this didn't work as an advantage for Raguna. It was too strong and it seemed nothing worked effectively.

Raguna raced to the other side of the room cleverly avoiding the stampede of feet and reached the other end only to be eye to eye to the bull. Raguna used this time to think of a plan or surprise attack, but how, and where? Suddenly vines shot from the ground and spiralled around both of Raguna's legs and squeezed tight His thinking came to a sudden halt and Raguna felt his energy was being sapped out of him. He clutched his sword and tried slashing the vines, but his hand became weak and his fingers were unable to keep the sword in his hand. The sword cluttered to the ground. Raguna knew that this could come to a grisly end, but his luck was becoming unlikely as two vines shot out from the wall which attached to his arms as if they were its prey. Raguna was now worrying and swallowed his anxiety; he began to sweat and carried on fighting in an attempt to cut loose from the vines even though his arms became lifeless and weak. He took another glance at the beast but it was all a blur of dark colours and the villain type face of the monster crept in Raguna's head as he was certain that this was the end...

Just as Raguna was about to close his eyes as sign of his defeat, he worked out a darker figure, which came across as a black blur, balancing on the beast's head with some large weapon held in a striking pose. Raguna struggled to work out who it was, but he could work out it was a male.

The man struggled to keep balance on the bulls head. The branches from the head worked as an advantage for him; however it vigorously shook his head and clumsily danced around the room. The man struggled to keep his balance but after the beast got tired from shaking him off, he took the chance to strike. His large hammer struck down onto the beasts head and cracked right through the tough oak until it reached the carved mouth. Splinters erupted from the beasts head while a weak black mist floated out which quickly got soaked into plants around the room. The bull tumbled down and its weight caused a tremor as it crashed onto the ceramic floor.

* * *

The sun was settling down in Trampoli, the birds flew in the eerie orange skies and the owls already began hooting.

Bianca and Tabatha were sat in the kitchen sipping rich herbal tea out of small china cups. The floor began to rumble and Bianca dropped the teacup which smashed instantly and the herbal tea splattered across her neatly ironed dress. "Ah!" Bianca squealed.

"Miss Bianca!" Tabatha queried. She looked concerned.

"I'm alright. I would like this floor mopped and this dress washed and ready within one hour. You know it's my favourite." Bianca demanded with a friendly touch to her elegant voice.

"Yes" Tabatha smiled. Tabatha left the room knowing on how impatient and quick tempered Bianca was, however Tabatha never lost her patience and loved her role as a maid. Tabatha was concerned for the village though, _what could have caused that? Raguna I sure hope your ok..._

Rosetta knelt down with her legs flat across the floor in the middle of scattered seeds, clothing accessories and spilt cooking oil. "Oh No...!" Rosetta winged. She clenched her fist. "This better not be your fault Raguna!" Rosetta cursed certain that his fighting in the ruins was involved with the tremor.

The door creaked open and Danny came in laughing gently kicking a tube of cooking oil on the floor. "Well, well, not so successful now are we" Danny cruelly laughed. Rosetta clenched her fist and got up from the floor.

"You are telling me that your store doesn't look like this!" She questioned.

"Well... in fact it does" Danny sighed. It wasn't long before Rosetta smirked and folded her arms in amusement. "I think that running my own business will never be as successful as I thought it was going to be, I might leave and start someplace else." Danny turned his back and approached the door.

"Wait! Why don't you come and work here!" Rosetta gleamed. She picked up a ripped bag of tulip seeds with half the content left in. "I'm going to need a hand with clearing all this up" Rosetta laughed. Danny turned to face Rosetta and they both exchanged smiles

Eunice and Uzuki leaned on the fence just outside the Snowstyle Tavern. Uzuki looked concerned and gazed over the town and noticed the odd crack in the ground; she noticed Lara and Stella wandering around the area and going door to door to see if everyone was alright.

"All my washing and cooking al gone to waste" Eunice sighed. She looked at Uzuki. "You think that Raguna was involved with that just happened?" She wondered.

"My concerns are about the town, I am sure Raguna is perfectly alright and he has our blessing" Uzuki replied. Uzuki had deeper thoughts about this, and wasn't as naive as other residents of Trampoli. She could sense darkness brewing in the air.

* * *

Raguna cut loose the remaining vines from his arms and legs, the room was surrounded in smoke of black mist and ground dust. He barked a pain of relief as he got up from his feet. His vision came back to him and he felt strong enough to walk. He swam through the dust clouds and kicked broken pieces of branches which came off the beast. Raguna then noticed a shadow in the mist and approached it.

"Hey!" Raguna called. He got closer and finally saw the man who saved him in detail. His clothing was very thick, unusual for this time of year. He had black spiky hair and a large metal plate across his head with symbols on it. Raguna gazed at the weapon attached to the man's back in curiosity. The weapon was a large hammer, possible the biggest hammer Raguna has ever seen.

"Are you ok?" The man asked which came across as not very empathic. "You were extremely lucky, if I wasn't there you would have been a goner; however I must admit, I admire you for lasting longer than ten seconds. That creature was powerful."

"Yes, thank you!" Raguna nodded. The man was about to walk away, but Raguna had more questions and reached for his shoulder. "Wait, you haven't told me your name."

The man stayed with his back to Raguna. "It's Zeke, yours?"

"I'm Raguna. Thank you Zeke, I owe you!"

Zeke smirked and turned around. "Well you won't need my help again, unless you get a stronger sword." Zeke exclaimed. "You see that kind of sword is ineffective against something with skin such as stone or tough wood. You need a much stronger sword, something with a sharp edge and a sharp point which is quite light so you can move around a lot more without using up too much stamina. You need to choose your swords more wisely when you come to fight enemies like this, otherwise you risk losing your life" Zeke explained with a serious tone.

"I guess I know all that, but I wasn't expecting something like that to be wondering around here" Raguna claimed. "By the way what are you doing around these parts? I have never seen your face here before and it is very unlikely for someone other than myself to be in these types of ruins." Raguna remarked.

Zeke took a while to reply. "I'm a blacksmith. I came here to collect some ores so I can craft more weapons. You see, weapon crafting is hobby of mine which I take very seriously. Just before I was going to leave the ruins I heard noise from the floor below so I broke through while you were busy facing the enemy and then hid myself around the creatures back waiting for the right time to approach its head and strike." Zeke claimed.

"So you know nothing about all these strange..." Raguna stopped as the ground below started trembling. Pieces of rock started to crash down like a heavy rain shower.

"These ruins are weak, they're going to collapse we need to get out!" Zeke yelled. Zeke was confused when Raguna didn't make an attempt to move. "We could both die!" Puzzled Zeke avoided the shower of rocks as he impatiently waited for Raguna to reply.

"Wait! I know magic which can transport us back to the entrance of the dungeon" Raguna implied. He raised his wrist and waited for a spiral of blue magic to transport them back to the entrance, but nothing happened. Raguna waved his arm like some device, and he began to sweat in panic and embarrassment. Zeke stood there not amused. It wasn't long before the silence was broke a large jagged rock came crashing down. Both Raguna and Zeke looked up, but were too late to move, their bodies froze and their eyes slammed shut...

* * *

The moonlight glittered across the rivers in Trampoli, and very few Runey's danced silently on the lily pads like a weak rainbow of fairies. Mist was watering her flowers in boxes sitting on the ledge, she was calmly humming to herself while repeatedly swaying the watering can from side to side, but she was interrupted as a puff of black magic appeared in the corner of her eye. "Hey Raguna!" Mist called out still swaying her watering can.

Raguna and Zeke were kneeling on the ground, and the voice of mist made it clear that Raguna was not dreaming. He looked at his hands covered in grime and dust. "I'm alive..." he whispered. He smiled and looked over at Zeke who was just as surprised as he was. _My magic must have worked after all, now we're both equal. He saved my life and now I have saved his_ Raguna thought.

"I was beginning to think you were joking around when you said you had magic..." Zeke uttered, slowly catching up with his breath.

"It usually doesn't take as long as that..." Raguna murmured and shook his head in confusion.

"How was turnip searching?" Mist gleamed. Zeke looked at the girl in confusion. While Raguna laughed.

"We've done a lot more then turnip searching" Raguna chuckled. Zeke sighed, while Mist looked on in confusion.

Raguna explained to Mist the battle between the beast and Zeke's arrival, while Mist explained the earthquake which happened to Trampoli and assured a concerned Raguna that the residents and pet monsters were completely fine. Zeke still had difficulty understanding Mist, but began to accept, from what he saw, her strange personality. Raguna and Zeke soon left a tired Mist who went to bed, and they got to know each other's occupations and life as they took the long route over to Laga Springs. Zeke became a lot warmer to Raguna when he realised that Raguna's magic saved his life. His serious tone faded away slightly and he was a lot more talkative, however his independency and overall personality remained the same.

They entered Laga Springs and Raguna immediately helped Melody help pick the remaining towels from the floor.

Melody noticed a hand hover over her offering a hand, she gleamed, but quickly frowned due to worrying over Raguna while he was in the ruins. "You had me scared!" Melody scolded. Raguna smiled and rubbed the back of his head.

"I'm sorry, you know me though. I can fight my way through anything!" Raguna reassured. Zeke grinned and chuckled. "Oh... It was this guy called Zeke who saved my life." Raguna presented his hand to Zeke. Melody and Zeke had a quick eye to eye. Zeke blushed, while Melody giggled. "Anyway, I think it is time me and Zeke soaked up in the bath" Raguna smiled.

Raguna handed over ten gold to Melody. Zeke walked in the male bathing section first but swiped the curtain shut in Raguna's face. "I like my privacy." Zeke exclaimed. Melody giggled and went back to adjusting the towels presentably.

After soaking up in the baths and restoring their stamina Raguna and Zeke stood face to face as they were about to call it a night. They smelled of milk honey and immediately felt freshened up and full of energy, the milk honey of Melody's favourite bath fragrances.

Raguna sighed as no Runey's were in sight. _Hopefully they'll turn up tomorrow _he hoped. "So will you be staying in town?" Raguna asked.

"I'll be around, but I'm not entirely sure where I'll be staying and how long I'll be around these parts. I have no reason to stay but I'll keep an eye on things." Zeke answered.

_Keep an eye on what?_ Raguna thought.

Zeke shuffled around his waist patch and pulled out an ore which sparkled in the moonlight as he presented it to Raguna. Its sharp azure shine pierced through the surrounding darkness. "Here I want you to have this..." Raguna placed his hands out as Zeke placed it carefully in the palm of his hands. "This is a mythrill ore, a very rare ore which I picked up on my adventures. You saved my life when the Green Ruins collapsed and you also need a stronger sword, so I'm certain this will come in good use" Zeke claimed.

Raguna was amazed by the sparkling of glitter around the ore, it looked very mythical and unique. "Thank you." Raguna said gratefully. Zeke took a backwards step and turned around. "Wait... Where will I find you?"

"Don't worry, you'll see me around the village I am certain and if you don't find me I will look for you." Zeke promised. He raised his hand up as a sign of goodbye, while Raguna headed in the opposite direction back home.

The Green Ruins was now demolished the staircase which led down to the ruins was in rubble, all that lay there now was broken pieces of rock, branches and a lot of dirt. However in between two large slates of rock was a large seed pointing out of the soft moist mud towards the moon. A mysterious figure hovered around and the moonlight portrayed her light blonde hair like gleaming silver. Her high neck colour disguised most of her face, but her sharp, distinctive violet eyes glared on at the seed. She started at the moon for a couple of seconds and then vanished in a puff of black magic.

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My first chapter! Really hope everyone has enjoyed it. If you have any advice please let me know

This may come across as rushed, because I was eager to post it up and share this idea. Chapter 2 will be more carefully thought out.


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